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3DR Radio, First Impressions

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I'm thrilled to report that my radio kit arrived and it works well.  Andreas is likewise happy with his kit.

Writeup here:

http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2012/04/review-3dr-900mhz-radio.html

Fixing the air unit network id:

http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2012/04/setting-network-address-on-3dr-air.html

Thanks 3DR, Tridge, and everybody else that worked in producing this unit!

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  • 5v

  • 50 ohms

  • Ok I installed an ESC with a bigger, 5A SBEC. I have the option of outputting 5, 5.5, or 6V to the APM. Which voltage would be best?

  • @Anderew Hmm, thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't noticed any problems but it looks like I should upgrade my ESC / BEC.

    I tried another distance run this passed weekend trying to get to about a mile. The signal got pretty low at around 1500m but I didn't lose the connection. I was able to reduce the ground side noise by mounting my antenna on a tripod instead of the side of my truck bed which is where I had it before. I can post the tlog if you'd like to take a look. I was a little surprised that my 5.8 ghz video didn't degrade at that distance but telemetry did. Video is 600mw with the blue beam antenna set.
  • Developer

    @John,

    I wonder if your ESC isn't quite handling the load? This is a graph of the 2560 CPU voltage for your flight:

    3692407954?profile=originalas you can see, it drops below 4V for a while. That could cause quite a few problems. It really should be close to 5V the whole time.

    Cheers, Tridge

  • @Andrew

    Im powering from a 3S LiPo through the ESC

  • Developer

    @John,

    I checked with Michael, and he does take into account the sequence numbers of the RADIO packets, so that wasn't the explanation. The 5% loss is from the whole flight, and at times the loss is much higher which is a bit unexpected.

    One thing I noticed is the HWSTATUS.Vcc voltage drops quite low at some points in the flight. How are your powering your APM?

    Cheers, Tridge

  • @ Andrew Tridgell, Thanks for the clarification. I was trying to avoid getting the wrong antenna on the module then powering it up.

     

    Alls ok though, I got the frequencies sorted and should maiden tomorrow.

     

    All 4 radio's work as described, on the ground, and it looks like other than the three digit ID#, the default settings are spot on.

     

    Thanks to all involved in this very usefull, and FUN project.

    Dennis

  • @ Andrew

    Thanks for looking at the logs. I never lost telemetry but I was a little worried about the link %'s. I used the Excel method Michael mentioned and charted the signal and noise and I consistently has more noise on the ground than in the air so Ill try adjusting that setup first.

  • *That was with dual 433mhz "air modules"

This reply was deleted.